


Contentious Conversations

by MarlenaWatches



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Ending Relationship, Explicit Language, F/M, Violence, Wynne gets bitch slapped
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-05-13
Packaged: 2018-06-05 09:44:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6699910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarlenaWatches/pseuds/MarlenaWatches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wynne is a sanctimonious busybody, and I dearly wish I'd had the opportunity to properly put her in her place.  This is shameless justice porn.  Obvious canon divergence.</p><p>Continuations pending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"You're quite taken with each other, aren't you?" Talitha was startled by the opener, Wynne's deceptively warm voice delivering the question before she'd had a chance to utter a greeting. "You...know about Alistair and me...?" Talitha shifted uncomfortably, wondering where the old mage was going with this. Wynne smiled condescendingly and responded, "It's hard not to notice the doe-eyed looks he gives you! Especially when he thinks no one's watching." Talitha tried not to frown, and asked pointedly, "And you're bringing this up because...?" Wynne blinked, her face rearranging itself into a distressingly familiar (and irritating) expression of motherly concern. "I've noticed your blossoming relationship, and I wanted to ask you where you thought it was going? Alistair is a fine lad, skilled in battle, but quite inexperienced when it comes to affairs of the heart. I would hate to see him get hurt."

Talitha beat back the outrage rising in the back of her throat as she responded quietly, "We're just taking it one day at a time. Not that we need your approval, Mage Wynne." The older woman frowned, her expression hardening as she continued, almost as if Talitha hadn't responded, "You are both Grey Wardens, and HE is the son of a King. You both have responsibilities which supersede your personal desires-" "Enough." Talitha growled the word and stepped forward, one arm raised waist-high, hand clenched in a fist as she hissed menacingly, "I've had quite enough of your insipid character assessments, you silly, self-righteous bint." Wynne stepped back, silent, mouth slack with shock as Talitha bore down on her, heedless of the heads turning toward them around the camp.

"For MONTHS now, I've been listening to you dole out your opinions of us as if they were sweets given out at Satinalia, and I'm sick to DEATH of it!" Anger was pooling in Wynne's eyes now, her posture recovering quickly. "You've repeatedly interrogated and insulted Morrigan, played the victim with Zevran after he deflected your invasive questions about his past with good humor, played favorites with Leliana because OF COURSE YOU WOULD, and had the absolute GALL to tell ME what being a Grey Warden should MEAN to me!" Everyone in camp was staring now, with varying levels of interest and discomfort. 

Talitha couldn't be bothered to care; months of pent-up frustration and grief had forced their way out of her at long last. She gave Wynne a vicious shove as her voice continued to rise, "My family was MURDERED in the NIGHT by a vile SNAKE of a man who now sits at the right hand of the monster who BETRAYED us all at OSTAGAR, and the one reason I'm even ALIVE to seek what justice I can lies with that grasping, single-minded RELIC of a Warden, Duncan, who wouldn't even CONSIDER helping my parents and me escape our besieged home without my agreeing to Conscription!" She was screaming now, but she didn't care. "I never WANTED to be a Warden, but here I am anyway! I'm doing the BEST I bloody-well can, with the people who've agreed to join me, scraping together the disparate political factions of Ferelden into something that MIGHT stand a CHANCE against a BLIGHT, and YOU have a PROBLEM with who I'm BEDDING?" She had just enough presence of mind to unclench her armored fist before she brought her hand soundly across Wynne's face, knocking the other woman to the ground.

Wynne cradled her jaw as she gazed up at the Warden; dazed, hurt, and more than a little afraid. Talitha stood over her, panting, doing her very best not to kick the woman sprawled on the grass before her squarely in the gut.

"You've second-guessed every decision I've made so far, from my assisting Bhelen in his ascension to his father's throne, to my alliance with Branka, to how I saved Conner from his idiot mother's ridiculous pride! No more! Either fall in line and keep your self-righteous, food-for-thought musings to yourself, or I'll hog-tie your sorry ass, stuff your mouth with magebane, and toss you to the Templars with a note around your neck detailing the particulars of your unfortunate status as an ABOMINATION."

At that, Wynne visibly blanched, and the silence that rang around the camp in the absence of Talitha's onslaught was alive with writhing tension. After a breath, she continued more quietly, losing none of the menace apparent to all present a moment before; "HAVE I made myself CLEAR, Mage Wynne?" Sensing a response was not only expected, but absolutely necessary at this juncture, Wynne averted her eyes, wiping the blood from her chin with a shaking hand as she stammered, "Y-yes, Warden. O-of course. My apologies." 

Talitha turned on her heel and stalked off into the woods beyond the edge of camp, one sharp whistle summoning her Mabari to her side. All was quiet in her wake for a very long while after her passing.


	2. Shockwaves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some of the other companions react to the last chapter's confrontation.

"Did you really mean what you said? About Duncan?" Alistair was seated on a damp log by the fire, halfway out of his armor at the end of another long day on the march. He fidgeted nervously with the bindings of his greaves, and avoided eye contact as Talitha's gaze swiveled toward him, her eyes narrowing slightly at the abrupt question. There was a short, tense silence as she leaned forward from her own seat to stir the contents of the cook pot, carefully avoiding sparks thrown off by the temperamental campfire. 

"Two days..." she began quietly. "You haven't so much as _looked _at me in all that time, and this is what you open with?" Her mouth stretched into what would have been a smirk, if not for the complete and total absence of mirth in her eyes.__

 _ _Alistair swallowed, took a breath and barreled forward, "You called him a relic, and said he Conscripted you against your will. You told Wynne-" "The truth," she interrupted forcefully. He frowned, but she held up a finger for his silence and continued, "I know how you feel about the man, Alistair, which is why I respectfully withheld my opinion of him while his loss was so near for you." His lips pursed, then disappeared into a straight, grim line as she continued; "Warden Duncan came to my father's estate looking for recruits, and vocally expressed a persistent interest in me, despite my own and my father's objections."__

 _ _

She leaned toward him, eyes glittering in the firelight as her voice turned bleak and hard; "He USED that viper Howe's murder of my House as a way to press me into the Wardens; he demanded my service in exchange for his assistence in any attempt of escape, as my father lay dying in my mother's arms, and I will NEVER forgive him for it." 

__

Alistair physically recoiled at the seething venom in Talitha's voice, and looked away, tension mounting in his shoulders. "I....I'm sorry. I didn't know..." "Of course not. I didn't tell you," her voice was softer now, her eyes sad and weary as she reached out for his arm. He winced at the contact of her fingers, and she withdrew, folding up the hurt she felt at his response, and stated firmly, "I didn't mean to keep this from you, Allie, but I wasn't ready to talk about it...." She turned back to the fire, finishing quietly, "It is what it is, and I can only move forward." 

" _Are _you moving forward though? I mean, really?" His eyes darted to hers, angry now, and challenging. She looked directly at him, expression passively expectant. It galled him, and he continued, "Your behavior the other day was....well, it was more than a little excessive... To be perfectly honest, you were downright cruel! Wynne did not deserve that, Talitha, and no one's said it yet, so I will! You were out of order, and I think you owe Wynne an apology."__

Her mouth went wide, her teeth bared in the most unpleasant grin he'd ever seen on anyone's face as she drawled, "...really? Is that what you think?" He drew himself up a bit straighter as he nodded silently, refusing to break eye contact. Her expression twisted into such an awful rictus of malice he unconsciously reached for his sword as she spat; "I'm disinclined to entertain your blathering nonsense any further. If you don't like how I run this operation, you may challenge me openly for my spot as acting Commander. If that is NOT your intent, than you'd best fall in line and follow my orders, Bastard Prince." 

With that she stood, turning away from the shock and mounting anger writ on Alistair's face. She stalked off toward Morrigan's corner of camp, ending not only the conversation, but any tender feelings the young man had been harboring for the stormy Warden recruit he'd opted to follow across the width and breadth of Ferelden.

~~~~

"I have a wonder, my friend." They'd been sitting in companionable silence for some time, and Talitha blinked once at Morrigan's words, coming out of her inner turmoil with the practiced ease of an aristocrat bred for diplomacy; "Yes, Lady Morrigan?"

"I can't help but notice; tension seems to be rising throughout our little band..." Talitha hummed an acknowledgement, waiting for Morrigan to make her point. "Do you intend to address it in any way, or are you hoping it dissipates on it's own?" Talitha frowned, scanning the camp's inhabitants as Morrigan continued loftily, "Not that it matters overmuch to me, but even I must admit a unified force is more effective in battle when some basic level of civility reigns amongst its individuals."

Talitha sighed, and responded, "You are not wrong." The witch smiled wryly and fell silent, returning her attention to the herbs she'd been grinding before the Warden had joined her fire-side. 

After several more moments passed in thoughtful silence, Talitha asked, " Do you think I was too hard on Wynne?" Morrigan scoffed, eyes still on the project in front of her, "That old woman has been burrowing her self-sanctioned nose into all manner of personal business having naught to do with her; Twas only a matter of time until it was caught twixt someone's knuckles and yanked." 

Talitha hid a grin at the sudden imagery of Morrigan leading a squealing Wynne firmly about by the nose, and cleared her throat as she nodded, "Thank you, Lady Morrigan. There are some here who apparently did not think her behavior was the inappropriate overreach you and I understood it to be" Morrigan sneered at the elfroot paste in front of her, " Is that so? Well, you'll forgive me if I remain largely unconcerned with what the likes of our dear Alistair does or does not think, Grey Warden." 

Talitha sighed, falling silent once more. Morrigan glanced sidelong at the other woman and added more solemnly; "I did mean what I said, however. About basic civility." Talitha looked up to meet the mage's eyes, as Morrigan continued, "Plainly; any efforts made to smooth over our upended dynamic should not go amiss."

\------

"Hey Warden!! Now we know you got a temper, I been wondrin' what yer like in the sack!" Talitha grunted as she pulled her short sword from the eye socket of a fallen hurlock, and glared daggers at the dwarf currently hacking the limbs off three genlocks who'd tried, unsuccessfully, to flank him. "Oghren, this REALLY isn't the time for your stupid jokes." 

"On your left, Grey Warden!" Zevran called over to her, voice pitched to carry. She turned just in time to parrry the downstroke of another hurlock's sword, letting loose a stream of colorful curses at the painful jarring of her strongarm. "You know what yer problem is, Warden? No sodding sense of humor! You need ta loosen up a little, and I'm more'n willing ta help!" He had finished off his genlocks and was now swinging his axe in broad arcs all round his body, cleaving through anything unlucky or unwise enough to get close. 

"GO FUCK A NUG, DWARF!" Talitha screamed as her sword severed a shriek's head from it's shoulders. "KINKY!" He roared in response. Even in the thick of battle, Talitha managed to roll her eyes heavenward.


End file.
